Mod's fluent youth speaks volumes for Gaelic education

Published:01:00Wednesday 17 October 2007

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THE continued success of Gaelic-medium education is providing organisers of the Royal National Mod with a welcome headache - how to cope with the huge number of children who are now being classed as fluent.

This year has witnessed a significant swelling in numbers in the junior native speakers' section, to such an extent that organisers have now been forced to extend some of the competitions beyond one day.

Tuesday of the Mod week has traditionally been reserved for pupils who have a strong grasp of the language, but some of these competitions have this year been moved to the Monday due to the high number of entries.

There have been a number of educational developments over recent years, such as the opening of dedicated Gaelic primaries in Glasgow and Inverness, and a further 103 Gaelic-medium units in primary schools throughout the country, supporting a total of 2,092 pupils.

John MacLeod, the president of the Mod organiser An Comunn Gaidhealach, said: "It is fair to say that the increase in fluent competitions is a direct result of the improvements in Gaelic-medium education. There are more and more kids coming through who are falling into the classification of fluent. That is highly encouraging and is something we welcome, but it is creating a problem for us.

"For the first time this year we held some of the fluent competitions on the Monday.

"I don't know how we deal with it if it continues to expand, which we hope it will, other than continue to extend it over the one day and maybe into Wednesday."

An Comunn has decided to introduce a new element to this year's events which should provide the children's section with even greater recognition.

Led by a group of pipers, the competing children from Monday and yesterday will march through Fort William town centre to gather at a grassy knoll known as the Parade where they will collectively display their singing ability to an anticipated large crowd.

Murdo Morrison, the Mod promotions manager, said the organisers "just wanted to do something for the kids".

He added: "We have had high praise for moving some of the competitions from Tuesday to Monday. We moved some of the folk groups to Monday, the first time we've done that with the children's competitions, and it is simply because of pressure of numbers. There has been a very high standard and it's been as a result of the increase of fluent speakers coming through from the Gaelic medium."

Meanwhile, in the competitions, the isle of Lewis proved it was still top of the class when it comes to producing solo singers in the traditional mould, with both the female and male event for traditional singing won by youngsters from the island. They were 18-year-old Colin George Morrison from Barvas and 17-year-old Charlotte Campbell from Laxdale.